Don't leave a house where the bathtub is overflowing, and then go drive your car into a lake. Don't leave a forest fire that's taking a while to get under control, and instead go jump in a volcano. Don't give up on your alcoholic spouse who's struggling in rehab, and...

The oil spill. "I am overwhelmed by the post-apocalyptic sensory experience of a man-made disaster irretrievably destroying part of our country."

(I am quoting Rachel Maddow above, from her show last night. Please read the full quotes from her at the end of this posting. I think her comments are...

It's probably churlish to title a Thanksgiving piece the way I have. And I do have many things I feel thankful about in my life. (Maybe I'll list them at the end, so I don't seem like a total grouch.)

But in terms of our country and our planet --...

When I was a child, I always got a headache when I was taken to New York City. We lived in New Jersey, about an hour from the city; and we would drive the unpleasant Route 22 to get there; or sometimes we'd take the Hoboken ferry, which was kind...

I've written a play on torture, and it's playing at the Public Theater in New York City until May 10th. I'm going to talk about the play a bit; and then the topic of torture, and whether Obama should allow investigations to go forward (answer, yes; surprise surprise).

The play...

I don't have a lot of Christmas traditions. Though watching holiday movies is kind of one. Because you know how movies and TV shows and books that you experienced when you were a child often continue to hold a magic over you even when you're older.

I...

As a gay man, I feel hurt and upset by Obama's inviting evangelist Rick Warren to speak at the Inauguration.

During the presidential campaign, I thought a lot about how as the Bush years went on, and the rest of the world thought less and less well...

Watching the MSNBC triumvirate of Matthews, Olbermann and Maddow these past Monday and Tuesday nights, I saw a number of clips that... well, made me angry. When I'm usually so serene.

First there was the clip from a recent interview Bush gave on ABC, as part of what many are...

They showed wall-to-wall clips of Reverend Wright proclaiming "God **** America!" non-stop for 3 or 4 days in Pennsylvania, where I have lived since 1996. And it didn't work! I am so glad.

Pennsylvania went for Obama. It had done so for Gore and Kerry too,...

October 7, 2008 - 10:25 a.m. or so

Both today and yesterday, MSNBC has been airing what appears to be full stump speeches from Sarah Palin.

As I write this, they have been playing her speech in Jacksonville, Fla for ten full minutes, and it's still going on. No comments...

I thought Barack was terrific -- strong, clear, knowledgeable. I thought McCain, to be fair, showed some of his knowledge in a good way. But he's too old, he's from the 20th century, the country doesn't need him now.

Plus I thought in some ways McCain...

John McCain has become a liar.

And as a citizen of the beautiful state of Pennsylvania, I can tell you that every morning on my television for the last month, McCain has been lying about Barack Obama's position on raising taxes.

Obama has been saying he would raise the...

I can understand the media running with the story of Obama choosing not to opt into public funding for a day or so of programming. And it's true, early in his run he said he was in favor of using public funding, before his candidacy took off and he discovered...

I always heard the phrase the Bully Pulpit without hearing the word "bully" in it.

The phrase, of course, simply means that the president has easy and frequent access to the American people to make his case. It seemed a logical and useful thing for the...

I live in Bucks County, PA, and over the weekend I canvassed for Obama out of the Quakertown campaign headquarters.

My actress friend Alice Playten came out from New York to join me. She's had a long career in musical theatre -- she was in the...

The Reverend Wright homilies were very disturbing, no question.

I thought Barack Obama's speech, which finished just minutes ago, was brilliant, nuanced, healing and shows him to be incredibly worthy as a candidate. I hope America is interested enough in progress to embrace this man. We would be lucky,...

Good morning. How are you today?

I'm aware Super Tuesday is tomorrow, and I wanted to do something else to convince more people to vote for Barack Obama.

In my last post, I quoted part of the speech Obama gave opposed to invading Iraq. He gave it...

My "blink" is that we need Barack Obama. We're lucky to have a transformational candidate, and we damn well better take advantage of that luck.

When I look at the biggest problems facing us, I think of

1.) Global Warming/Climate Change
2.) the need for alternative, non-oil-coal energy...

Update: Well, Hillary won New Hampshire, not by an enormous amount, but she won it. Some of what I wrote below was based on what "seemed" to be happening with Obama, and the fact he had been ahead in the polls in New Hampshire.

But the polls were wrong,...

Dear Editor,

I am 28 years old. Some of my friends say that the war on terror is a mistake, and furthermore "terror" is an abstract noun, it's not a country, and you can't wage war on an abstract noun. My friends, especially Peter Wilkins, say that there...